TLD First Impressions

wayfriend · Posted: Mon May 25, 2015 6:13 pm Post subject:

Welcome to the other side!

Some of your comments are oft-commented, but some are a bit new. Reboot some discussions, start some discussions!

The tale of why the Chronicles ended the way it ended, why it was written that way and what might the author have been thinking, has yet to be fully revealed. Although there have been some hints. Not that it doesn't stand on its own. But I've become as invested in the author's quest as in the story itself, and I don't think I am alone.
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* I occasionally post things on KevinsWatch because I am a fan of Stephen R. Donaldson; this should not be considered as condonation of the white nationalist propaganda for which this forum has become a platform.

Frostheart Grueburn · Posted: Mon May 25, 2015 7:13 pm Post subject:

Nerdanel · Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 8:24 pm Post subject:

I'm majorly disappointed, which is related to why I'm posting this comment so late. I buy my books in paperback, so being late is normal, but this time I also had trouble first starting and then continuing the story. I think I read the thing in three widely separated pieces because at times I just couldn't for weeks or months muster the interest to pick up the book again. I've had issues with that sort of thing lately, but even still that doesn't speak well of a book.

In any case TLD felt a lot tighter written and generally better than AATE. I just had trouble caring about stuff. And it's not like being better than AATE is a high bar...

Many of the general faults of TLC continue in TLD, but at least there is now much less time travel. I'm not a fan of the Insequent, so I didn't exactly miss them, but you think they'd have done something about the world ending. If one of them had researched the Worm, the plot hole about putting it to sleep could have been avoided.

I think Linden was actually pretty awesome in this book, at least when she had the Staff of Law.

On the bad side, the plotting continues to feel really random, the pacing is erratic, the atmosphere is pretty much not there, and I don't care about whether those people live or die, which is generally agreed to be a pretty bad thing. ...I notice I'm overusing the word pretty. Maybe that's lingering psychological damage from SRD's cataphracts.

It feels to me that SRD didn't dare to go to places with this book. Timidity brought by old age or editorial intervention?

That epilogue is bad fanfiction.

peter · Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 7:03 am Post subject:

There are widely different views in TLD and on TLC in general Nerdanel, and yours is well represented. I wish I could have found more in Covenant's final act also, but I guess Donaldson wrote the books he felt he had to write.
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....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

dlbpharmd · Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 3:28 pm Post subject:

It's good to see you back, Nerdanel!
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Nerdanel · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 5:51 pm Post subject:

Another thing that occurs to me about my first impression is that, with a quality drop like this in something I love, I might be expected to be angry from love betrayed, but instead I'm just kind of disappointed. I find it hard to feel much of anything about this last book. It's strange how the first six books were so emotional, but in TLC most of that went away, and in TLD there aren't even Anele and Esmer to wish death upon. I mean, I think the lack of those two is a good thing and makes the book better, but now there's only blandness left. Even the end that was probably meant to be a joyous return to the old feeling only felt hollow and embarrassingly badly written.

ussusimiel · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 9:12 pm Post subject:

We had some interesting discussions about this, Nerdanel. For example:

The Implied Contract Between Author and Reader. Discuss!

Personally, I had to set the series aside halfway through FR and come back to it a couple of years later with a totally different set of expectations. In the end to finish the LCs I had to treat them as almost completely separate from the 1st & 2nd Chronicles.

Another reason/motivation to finish the series was that I knew that I was going to be meeting SRD at E'fest 2014 and I wanted to be able to look him straight in the eye when I asked him to sign my copies of IW and Gildenfire Laughing

(I also got to ask him a question. The answer to which was to reveal that he had written two new fantasy novellas, The Augur's Gambit and The King's Justice, due out this October.)

u.
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Tho' all the maps of blood and flesh
Are posted on the door,
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Zarathustra · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 5:35 pm Post subject:

Nerdanel, if you look through the old threads, you'll find you're not alone in being disappointed. I think we all wanted to love this series. It hurts when we can't.

It's probably best that you took a while to finish. Things were pretty tense here for a while after TLD came out. Now you can voice your opinion without fear of being attacked for it.
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Meaning is created internally by each individual in each specific life: any attempt at *meaning* which relies on some kind of external superstructure (God, Satan, the Creator, the Worm, whatever) for its substance misses the point (I mean the point of my story). -SRD

Remain faithful to the earth, my brothers, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth ... Do not let them fly away from earthly things and beat with their wings against eternal walls. Alas, there has always been so much virtue that has flown away. Lead back to the earth the virtue that flew away, as I do-back to the body, back to life, that it may give the earth a meaning, a human meaning. -Nietzsche